Gold and bronze makes for something a little different. These particular pop tabs are from cat food cans, and are hard to save up, Zimmer said.

Gold and bronze makes for something a little different. These particular pop tabs are from cat food cans, and are hard to save up, Zimmer said.

Photo: Courtesy Claudia Zimmer

Image 48 of 49

These larger pull tabs came from Campbell's soup cans.

These larger pull tabs came from Campbell's soup cans.

Photo: Courtesy Claudia Zimmer

Image 49 of 49

Houston Etsy seller makes amazing things from pull tabs

1 / 49

Back to Gallery

Whenever Claudia Zimmer sees something, she imagines it made of crochet and pull tabs from soft drink cans. This Spring ISD science teacher has a fun part-time job on the side — she makes purses, jewelry and even clothing from pull tabs, a craft she learned in her native Brazil, and sells her work through her Etsy shop, Pop Top Lady.

Zimmer started crocheting when she was 9, learning from her grandmother, a master crocheter. About eight years ago, she was visiting her family in Brazil when her sister showed her little crocheted coin bags made from pull tabs. “I made one, then I started experimenting and looking at the work of Brazilian artists that do that.”

Zimmer said this type of crochet is very popular in Brazil, and artists sell their work in the United States through fair trade agreements. “My first pieces were not that great until I found nylon thread,” she said.

She added that her production is slow because of her full-time teaching job. “I wish I had more time … I make a lot of things over the summer and school breaks.”

Zimmer saves pull tabs from various cans, mostly soft drinks but also soup and even cat food cans. Friends also save tabs for her, but she buys many of them from a group of Boy Scouts in Iron Mountain, Mich. “They use the money for their summer camp,” Zimmer said.

Another teacher collects tabs at her school for Ronald McDonald House and gives Zimmer all the colored tabs (mostly from energy drinks) in exchange for Zimmer’s extra silver tabs.

Zimmer, who teaches seventh grade, said she has moved around a lot. She came to the United States in 1993 and lived in Canada and Boston before moving to New Orleans. She and her family came to Houston after Hurricane Katrina. You can find her at her Etsy shop or on Facebook.